Practice With Visualization (Blog Post #4)

The Visual Itself

Kim and Kanye Timeline  

    Although Kim and Kanye's story is an interesting one, it is a confusing one as well. Their relationship spans nearly a decade, filled with constant twists and turns. Most students are not well-informed on this turbulent relationship, which may lead to some confusion when it comes to the texts. Even with knowledge of the couple and information from the texts, the course of the relationship can be hectic. So, by providing a timeline students are able to track where events are occurring and compare them to the actions prior to/following them. This may lead to not only a better understanding of the text, but it may bring about newer and deeper ideas.

The Creative Process

    After I had finally decided that I wanted to make a timeline, I began my search for an interactive platform. Timelines can be boring for many students as all you can do with it is just look at it. I wanted to discover something that could bring a little bit more to the table. I ended up finding Sutori. Sutori is an educational website that is dedicated to providing teachers with engaging visual materials. They have everything from digital notebooks to portfolios to self-paced courses and more! Every tool they had for use was free and maintained some form of interactivity. Within my timeline, I utilized gifs, polls, forums, and more. Sutori elevated my timeline from a boring one-pager to an educational platform.

    When selecting the images I used within Sutori, I had two criteria: the image should relate to the time period it is representing, and the image should prompt either deeper understanding or develop a connecting question. Every time point that I have on my timeline fulfills the first criterion. The image represents whatever time it is - for example, one slide discusses Saint's birth. Thus, for an image, I selected a photo of Saint as a baby. However, not every image fulfills my second criterion. While they all still relate to the time period, only some may prompt deeper thinking and questions. For example, one of the first few photos I selected was of Kim and Kanye with Taylor Swift. On that slide I discuss the battle that occurred between Swift and the couple - so why would they take a picture together where they appear happy? I want students to think about this while they are reading and connect it back to previous readings we have had about Kim and Kanye's relationship. 

Deepening My Understanding

    As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, there is a strong possibility that my students don't know all that much about Kim and Kanye's relationship. I realized that I fell into this same boat. I knew a bit here and there from social media, but a lot of the references made in my text sets were lost on me. There was just so much that occurred throughout their relationship and within the text sets that I couldn't keep track. Once I created the timeline, all of the information I had read from my texts started falling into place. I could finally see why one person reacted a certain way towards another or how this thing affected that one. Having the visual allowed me to create deeper connections to every event, thus providing a better understanding of the texts. For example, in the article "Who Owns Yeezy?" from my text set, there was a reference to Kanye's manic tweets. The article discussed how these tweets were being used in court by both Kim Kardashian's team and Adidas' lawyers. When I first read this, I was confused how a tweet would relate to both of those people from a business aspect. After creating the visual, however, it was clear that Adidas was upset with Kanye's anti-semitic rants and wanted to pull business from him. With Kim, it was clear that she was preparing her evidence for a possible divorce preceding and business break up. Overall, it was easier to piece together where things fit in while I could also analyze the relationship between prior events and the current one. 

Visualization For Learning

     This process has helped me to understand the benefits of using visualization in learning. Originally, I thought visualization was only two things. First, I thought it was just images. Bland, old images that somehow related to the text. Second, I thought visuals were just meant to provide something interesting to look at while reading. Now, I understand that visualization is not just a random, optional additive to the reading, but instead it is it's own necessary piece of knowledge that builds the comprehension of the topic. Through the use of the timeline, specifically, I learned that having a complicated and drawn-out concept may require a simplified lay-out of information. There is so much going on within this text set that it's easy to get lost. Having the timeline helped me stay grounded and not have to focus so much on where everything lies. I will most definitely use visualization in the future. I learned so much from it in just this small project. I can imagine the impact it would have on students when we are working on a larger unit.